It’s been close to a decade since blockchain technology surfaced, offering the tech community new possibilities and multiple uses. In our innovation lab, we’ve been exploring blockchain technology over the last few years; testing use cases with partners and clients, and continuing to examine whether the technology is helpful for customer engagement and loyalty purposes, or if it’s just hype?

Building a successful CX strategy can feel like a haunting task. Brands recognize the importance of defining and delivering a differentiated Customer Experience, but often don’t know where to start, or get lost along the journey. The right Customer Experience potion is the combination of a few key ingredients, including a CX strategy aligned with the brand promise, defining the business outcomes your CX work will impact, mapping the entire journey (with the customer), and engaging your employees by creating a CX culture.

The chicken and the egg, age before beauty, cart before horse—while we love to debate the natural order of things, many brands are in search of a loyalty or CRM platform before understanding how the technology resides within the overall brand and program strategy. Marketers are eager to entice customers with a rewards program; however, loyalty has completely changed. Today a program involves so much more than simply launching a points platform—it requires truly understanding the customer journey and the ways in which customers engage with your brand.

In a moment of huge frustration, it’s often down to individual staff members to deliver an experience that takes that frustration away and allows one to breathe a sigh of relief and appreciation. On a recent visit to the U.K., I got to experience this first hand.

On Wednesday, in an email to Members, Air Canada shared, “Straight to the point: we heard from many customers who were excited about our plans and would prefer to transfer their Aeroplan Miles to the new Air Canada loyalty program.”

Wednesday’s news sets up a reset in the Canadian loyalty and co-brand space—with the potential to ease market consternation about the fate of Aeroplan and the intentions of Air Canada, the news brings clarity and confidence to what would otherwise have been a period of continued uncertainty leading up to June 2020.

As I look back over the past four years to when we launched Bond and began our separation from a U.S. holding company, I’m amazed, and so proud of our team and what we’ve accomplished to become an industry leader. I’m also extremely grateful for the growing list of global brands who have chosen to work with us.

“Tofee or not tofee?” will be the question many retailers ask themselves this year, as paid loyalty programs steadily take hold. While the paid model isn’t new — Costco is a pioneer in this space and game-changer Amazon Prime launched back in 2005 — more retailers are viewing pay-to-play as a compelling option for both members and their businesses. Restoration Hardware, GameStop, Bed Bath & Beyond, and GNC have all jumped on board, and the pay-to-play movement will only grow from here.

Weclome to a guest blog by Andrew Dorn, Director of Marketing Channels at RedPoint Global, a proud partner of Bond Brand Loyalty.

Loyalty programs have become extremely popular in recent years, and for good reason. Providing rewards to repeat customers is a good way to get them to keep coming back. But that’s not the whole story. To truly engage consumers and keep them loyal to your brand, you need a comprehensive strategy that centers around understanding customer behaviors, preferences, and interaction histories. Only once you have built and implemented this customer engagement strategy you can be confident of driving greater retention and loyalty over time.